SQLite substring() Function

The SQLite substr() function extracts and returns a substring from a specified string according to the specified starting position and length.

From SQLite 3.34, substring() is added as an aliase for substr().

Syntax

This is the syntax of the SQLite substr() function:

substr(string, start[, length])

Parameters

string

Required. The string to extract from.

start

Required. The starting position of the substring.

length

Optional. The length of the substring. The default is to the end of the string string.

Return value

The SQLite function substr() extracts a substring of length length starting at start position from the string string and returns it. If length is not specified, substr() extracts the substring from start to the end of string string.

If start + length exceeds the length of string string, return the substring from start to the end of string string.

If any parameter is NULL, the function will return NULL.

Examples

This example shows how to use the substring() function to extract the string starting at position 7 in a string.

SELECT substring('hello world', 7);
substring('hello world', 7)
---------------------------
world

You can also specify the number of characters to extract (the length of the substring), for example:

SELECT substring('hello world', 7, 5);
substring('hello world', 7, 5)
------------------------------
world